Control room environments, especially 24/7-type environments, are often static workplaces where little or no physical activity is required for the human operators in control. Such environments can be depressing, unwelcoming and uncomfortable to work in for extended time periods and human operators often suffer from mental fatigue and boredom that may impair their ability to stay alert and proactive at any given time. The importance of improved ergonomics in such control room environments have long been realized by control room designers and much effort is put into this technical field in order to ensure safe operation of the controlled systems or facilities. For example, modern operator consoles can be adjusted in many ways to fit the physical dimensions and personal preferences of an individual human operator. In the past, operator consoles were typically static and once and for all adapted to a theoretical average operator figure based on a “one size fits all” design approach.
Although modern operator consoles may be adjusted to an operator in many ways as described above, the individual settings in present control room systems are generally made manually or by way of separate motor powered or hydraulic activators. Individual settings range from the basic adjustments such as operator desk height, to climate settings and distance to information display monitors. Typically, a problem of inconvenience with current control room systems is that multiple settings must be made separately by the operator in order to achieve an individually adapted work setting for optimal work ergonomics.